And if you have a kid on a youth contract earning some $50 a week in an NPL club, what do you reckon the buy-out of 18 months of such a contract is worth?

What a coincidence - about $7k!

I don't agree. Everyone knows how the transfer system works. Its out there on the table. What I don't agree with is how transfer fees are currently capped to a minuscule amount which doesn't help anyone. Just open it up and let market forces decide how much a player is worth. That's the whole point we don't know how much our players are worth in a free market. Both players and clubs need to make decisions on what is best for them. In a transfer market how is an NPL club going to demand more, they will only receive how much a club is willing to pay. At least if they do sell him they will get a fair amount for him. If they decide not to sell him then he stays at the club and sees out his contract and he becomes a free agent. It's not rocket science. 

Dont be silly pipinu is right.

"Rather - a system should be agreed within the domestic football family to work out how a small return can find its way back to the original club 

Its what we have already but hey its a great idea.

They have 5 (6) years until the next tv deal is negotiated. This should be their time frame to plan, develop and execute their structure. They need to build a financially viable :) league that adds value to football.

If a league can be set up it will IMO require to meet certain metrics :).

Will it be in a strong enough position in 6 years time that Foxtel, or which ever, want to to be part of the A-League?
That should be an aim.

The idea that people will leave the A-league in droves for a second division with familiar clubs and less marketing/visibility. 

Yep all that's been keeping the state league teams from having massive fan bases is calling their league a 2nd division rather than state league. 

Id like to see this happen though. would be good for their fans. 

With your bitter sarcastic opening response, I highly doubt it. 

The same people crapped on about a cup and it took nothing to set up and it's already made waves in football. Clubs have invested in their grounds and money is coming back to the states. 

I only remember positivity about the cup, was anyone negative about it?
I don't expect people to leave the HAL in droves, but why should that be the purpose anyway?

I think this more represents, for football fans, a step forward and a step closer to a true football pyramid. Thats where the excitement extend from for myself and I'm sure the majority.

I doubt people want to see the HAL fail, its more LOLS over the fact that it looks like is going to happen against FFA will.

An independent self-organised and funded second division is by far the best way to go about it.


Good luck to them. I hope it is viable.

If you look at the last years of the NSL, crowd averages (Home and Away) were just above 5k, mainly due to the contributions of Perth, a newly formed Adelaide Utd and South Melbourne.

It was fair enough that the NSL administration needed a clean-out and the much higher crowds of A-league clubs shows this was justified.

However, a massive opportunity was lost by leaving the former NSL clubs in the state leagues and not leaving a second division in place sooner. A cooling off period would probably have been required to let the dust settle but the FFA cup at least was 5-6 years overdue.

I think the FFA just tried to funnel NSL fans into the A-league instead of focusing on the key strength of the sport in this country, the size of the base of its pyramid. It seems they were still scared of "old soccer".

Even if pro/rel was off the cards for many years, they could play a winter comp and also create a testing ground for potential expansion sides to prove their on and off field credentials. They

Even if they could manage an average of 3k, that is still great by world standards. Looking at tier 2 averages from last year from Wiki:
Buli 2 - 19k
Championship - 17k
China League 1 - 9k
Spain Segunda - 8k
Scotland League 1 - 7k
England LEague 1 - 7k
J2 - 7k
Buli 3 - 7k
Brazil Serie B - 7k
Italy Serie B - 7k
France Ligue 2 - 6k
NASL - 6k


I think this all comes back to the philosophical question we need to ask ourselves - What do we want football to be in this country?

Focus on youth development for the success of the NT?
Bright lights, big stadiums and mega tv deals?
Building a strong pyramid with strong foundations of amateur clubs that builds up through the semi-pro to the pro leagues?

The answer to this question shapes the direction the game takes.

C&A are one in the same. Both need each other to be succesful and B can't really happen without C or A.

Tiger Air haha.

Teams in certain NPLs already pay large travel and accommodation costs.

Fury and Heat from the NPLQ do this everytime they play a SEQ team.

-PB

It must be heaps of fun travelling with width and length of queensland playing and being payed to play football. 

With this NPL agitation being focused in Melbourne, there is some merit in just including clubs initially from the SE corner:  Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and the Gong.

@ pippinu

There's agitation in QLD as well, but the merits of having strong representation from the SE corner as you say are strong.

Starting out with 10 teams home and away with a concentration in the S/E and expanding later may not be a bad start

Not being paid you mean haha.

-PB

Good.

Interesting article from Cockerill.

There other 2nd tier competitions which have started with a SE corner emphasis, the SE basketball league is one which comes immediately to mind.  It just  reduces the costs for a start-up league, which is a bit of a leap into the darkness, so the more costs can be controlled, the better it will be in the long run.

Five teams from Melbourne (maybe one from Geelong), five from Sydney, one from Canberra and one from the gong makes 12 teams with travel costs kept to a minimum.

Go from there.

Interesting South Hobart's interest.

I'd just love to have some HAL 2 standard football to watch live on a fortnightly basis. I don't care about TV. I've watched too much pro football on TV and not enough live.

Eh still get to travel significant portions of the country. 

Almost no difference in distance from Adelaide to Melbourne compared to Melbourne to Sydney. Adelaide's actually closer.

How does Adelaide to Sydney compare though?

I think we can put a competition together of teams on the east cost excluding only WA and NT initially, the travel would then be manageable and with appropriate kick off times most can be done flying in the morning. coming back in the evening. the important thing is to make this WORK and build from there. Ideally it becomes an A2 with pro/rel within five years and the inclusion of WA/NT and the expansion teams for the A League are drawn from here not made up in a back-office of Fox studios

If the issue is keeping costs to a minimum, the problem would be that for the Adelaide side every away game would be an interstate flight.  If it's a 10 team, 18 round competition, that's the difference between 5 trips interstate and 9 trips.

The cost of flying from Bris to Melb or Adel Bris,compared to Syd Melb is minimal.
If teams have to hop on a plane it's the Perth or Darwin trip that really is the costly one.The rest are not going to be significantly different.
So really any Div2 or Div3 competition can include Adelaide,Brisb,Canb,Melb and Syd.
Does anyone have an estimate for travel costs for say Syd to Melb per game?
I would guess for say 20 people including players and entourage at $500 per person would cover it.So 10k per trip.For lets say 7 away plane trips maximum for Brisbane or Adelaide,,that is $70k .That could no doubt be reduced and Syd and Melb teams would have far less plane travel.
For a 14 team Div 2,total travel costs would be 14 multiplied by the average travel cost for all teams,say 40kper team.Therefore the governing body can either charge each club say $50k to play and pay for travel or let clubs pay themselves.
Getting a sponsorship contra deal with a travel agent/airline would pull down those costs.
Anyway the bottom line is if clubs can get travel costs covered,then there are no serious obstacles to playing except their own roster salaries amd admin.
If clubs can keep all the revenue they earn and down the track earn some from the Div2 generated revenue,then break even or small losses is not impossible.
So with all clubs having home venues they own or venues that make them money,a club with $500k revenue a year or in the bank could easily play and make Div2 viable.

I'm teaching my 8yo the times tables so I got this one.
10x7 = 70 NOT 700
You're welcome.
:D

Hotrod
Hahahaha...

...

lol

Travel and accommodation wouldn't be a big problem. But the Melbourne and Sydney based teams would have a slight advantage because they would have less road trips compared to Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide.

Perth would have the biggest travel expenses by far out of the lot.

All we need to consider is perhaps given a slightly greater grant of cash for these teams from the revenue pool (whatever that will be) and we are talking about sums of around 30 to 40k tops. So not a big pile of money at all. 

I think this can be viable, even for Perth. 

So let me see if I understand this. Clubs that have no local support, no results to speak of , are financial basket cases. Are going to tell the FFA what to do?

No, they have plenty of support, history and have quite a record of production of quality players. Something the FFA are afraid of.